Post 38 Some final Advice from professor Jenkins

Last Wednesday we learned some important advice from Professor Jenkins. He told us young ones to stick to our guns. He said that if your client wants you to make changes to the project or product then proclaim to get paid the cost of it then charge at a rate of pay per hr., for the work that will be accomplished. Never work for free unless it’s something that you love to do. As a business man Professor Jenkins told us to get an accountant and a lawyer. Also always have a backup drive for all important files. Finally always enjoy yourself and give to others. Let’s not forget what the class was about "POWER". Thank You Professor Jenkins for all the wisdom.

Post 37 REAL Business Information

On Monday April 23 I think I learned some incredible information. I learned that there are about 1000 billable hours in a year if you work the standard 40 hr. week. I learned that you should be earning $1000 for every year old. When it comes to home businesses if you have a house and use one room as an office, you divide that room from the total amount of rooms and use that percentage to deduct from taxes, like dividing the gas bill by the percentage of how big that office is. When it comes to networking you’re not going to get much out of it but your friends on the other hand can really help your business by referrals and helping out on projects with their skills and never do contracts with friends. Finally you should Invoice on a project get 33% upfront, 33% after a first draft and 34% at completion. Now that’s some great business advice.

Post 36

Yesterday in class we learned how to really do a cover page for a resume. First off many people screw up by being humble and not trying to sound cocky. Many managers don’t want to teach people how to do their job they are looking for someone who knows what to do. One of the most important things is to send or make sure your resume makes it to the right person such as a hire manager and get the address RIGHT! There should be around four paragraphs with each paragraph being around 2-3 sentences. Always begin your first paragraph with a hook or a story. The second paragraph is the, you want the job section. The third paragraph is the, you can do it section list . The last paragraph should be the closing paragraph by closing it assertively like "I look forward to getting the job done for you" . Then list all your contacts.

Post 35

On Monday we learned about fear and the message that it can send and create. First fear is used to motivate people for the wrong reasons. This can be seen often in political ads. In the 1950's it was the Russians attacking the United States of America, now the fear is from terrorists. There is a 4 part fear appeal. The first is to introduce the threat with a stronger hey you. Then you need to demonstrate that the audience is at risk, the decision to buy into this the threat has to be possible to happen to you. Then you introduce the solution, and think is the solution equal to death. Finally you have to show the audience they can do the solution. To strengthen the appeal it has to be likely to happen, make many references and add vivid word pictures.  I’m going to end on a phrase that stuck to me that is "If only, are the saddest words."

Post 34

Last Friday we learned about how McDonalds took over world. McDonalds has something for everyone and for every market. For kids McDonalds took the approach of making it a "hot spot" for kids to hang around in after school to meet up and catch up with friends. It wanted to become the cool place to be. Then there were the Drunks or the all-nighters. There were commercials of a cool moon playing the piano with sunglasses on and eventually announcing that the drive-thru was going to be open late night or even 24 hrs, this would satisfy the urge for munchies for the all-nighters. Now maybe the one demographic that wasn’t represented was the elderly until McDonalds started launching its commercials aimed at the elderly as a place to work part time maybe post retirement to keep them social and feel power again.

Post 33

On Wednesday April the 11th we learn about the history of McDonalds and their marketing strategies. First hamburgers were eaten during the depression when cheap food was good food. Then the 1950's car culture brought about the drive-thru and hamburgers reached a greater audience. McDonalds started targeting kids as their target market. With marketing plans like introducing Ronald McDonald the clown, kids were excited to buy McDonalds meals and they in turn asked their dads who would agree and become the "cool dad.”  With the kids and dad convinced there was mom left to convince she didn’t like fast food because a home cooked meal was healthier. McDonalds started coming out with commercials with Ronald McDonald saying phrases like "Mom is always right". After convincing mom the whole family was left wanting McDonalds.

Post 32

On Monday April 9th we discussed the visual narrative. We learned how screen shots can differ in film. I learned that the wide shot or (ws) shows everything in the surroundings and is used mainly in the beginning of a show or movie to show where the characters are. An example of this could be in the movie gladiator they use the wide shot to show the arena. Then there is the med shot or (ms) which are used 80% of the time it is used to communicate the story. The med shot is a exposition shot. There is also the close up shot or (cu) and is the exclamation shot. It is the attention getter because it focuses on an object or person very closely. This makes the shot very suspenseful. There are rarely any close ups in comedies. The close up is good to show emotion and facial features.

Post 31 Cars and classic American Muscle

On Friday April 6 we talked about the all American product of cars. Cars have their history in America first it was the Model T by Henry Ford then the affordable muscle cars of the 60's such as the Pontiac GTO to the everyday cars we see today from manufacturers such as Ford, GMC and Dodge. At first they were a luxury and over time as more people could afford them, they became practical and now a car is seen as a symbol of the driver. The car has become an accessory to show off you. Its "what it says about you" your lifestyle such as a BMW shows that you are successful and it can show if your dependable like a Ford truck or even your sex life because all guys want that sports car that is a chick magnet. Cars can be marketed in many ways, such as selling youth to older people.

Post 30

On March 23 we talked about F.A.B and the benefits giving power. Then when it comes to selling we brought back up A.I.D.A with the sayings of "Hey you!", "You want?", " I've got" and "Buy now". Then we got on the subject of mascots for food like the Green Giant and Popeye and Spinach. These characters appeal to younger customers and to be honest they are not the customers but it’s usually their parents who do the purchasing. There are other ways companies appeal to age and that is like when businesses use kid actors in their commercials for toys and the actors are around 5 years older than the intended target market to make the product look like its cooler for kids. The same thing happens for beauty products intended for those who are 55 or older they use actors that are around ten years younger than the target market.

Post 29

On March 21st we talked about A.I.D.A which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action these are intended to break the WIFM barrier. With Attention comes "hey you!" attention can be accomplished many ways such as the classic attention getters of sex and food. Then there’s the more commercial ways of getting attention which is through noise, signs and bright lights. Then there is Interest to break the W.I.F.M barrier. Interest would sound like "You want?" these advertisers would sound like drug dealers in how they present their product. Next to penetrate W.I.F.M is Desire. Desire would sound like “I’ve got ____" the sellers would sound like "you gotta have it." Then finally there is Action and this would sound like "Buy it now!!" this is limited edition.

Post 28

On Monday March 19th we toyed around with corn we went over some features such as being a vegetable. Then we talked about the attributes that some corn has such as some come popped. Following up we talked about trying to market corn to different groups of the customers. We talked about marketing it for college kids ages 18-25 so we came up with their characteristics lazy, no money and no cooking skills. They also lack cooking skills but then we mentioned some benefits to them being that corn is quick, easy and fast. Next we talked about marketing corn to families’ age groups 25-45. We talked about how corn meant more to families see it as people enjoying a nutritional dinner. The last group we mentioned were the people aged from 55-75 we mentioned how they are on a fixed income and corn means security to them.

Post 27

No class today!!There weren’t enough students in class today so we got the day off. It’s a great way to start the weekend.

post 26

Yesterday in class we learned more about benefits of your product or message. Like Schramm's model of is the reward worth the effort one silly thing that we mentioned was whether the effort of a kid driving 1,000 miles just to try a Dorito shell taco worth the effort, I haven’t tried one yet but I can guarantee that the drive was definitely not worth the effort. I wouldn’t drive over 30 minutes for any fast food but I guess it was all about the experience for those kids. We talked about how there three aspects of benefits the first one are being WHY or why should they buy or use the product. Second know your audience, don’t sell apple sauce to adults and then Speak their language once you get your audience know what benefits they want to receive out of your product.

post 25

• On Monday we learned what we do with language which is, translate for the audience we want the audience to know exactly what we mean, create emotion or trigger that feeling in your heart or mind, keep it simple or dont do too much, focus or try to just stick to one aspect, consise or say what you mean

What we want to avoid in language is cliches, soft language, double speak and never betray your audience.
We learned that image can also communicate withlout saying anything. Some examples of this is the cast of the jersey shore and clothing, some brands have gone as far as to offer some cast members NOT to wear their product or brand. I guess image is everything these days.

Post 24

Last Friday we learned about the power of words and that words are the most powerful drug. We talked about the association some words have such as Diamonds and thinking of Deberrs and on a darker note we mentioned Blood Diamonds. We learned that sometimes soft language can desensitize us. Then we watched George Carlin make some good points about soft language such as shell shock then it turned into battle exhaustion then operational exhaustion and eventually the word being used today is post-traumatic stress disorder. Then we talked about how words are specially used and picked to advertise such as old fashion which makes you think of the good old days. Some other words are homemade which makes you think of how mom used to make and cuisine which makes you think of elegance and classy.

Post 23

Yesterday in class we reviewed what we learned Friday which was the use of abstract words such as love and Concrete words such as fluffy and tiny. We went from abstract to concrete words for example we started with engine but grew more and more specific such as car engine, V8 engine, turbo V8 engine, Audi V8 engine and 1940 Audi V8. Also keep the story dialog concise and to the point. The topic of dual coding was brought up again and told emotions make the stories more memorable so that we can visualize it in our mind. Once again we were told of the audience’s desire for power, and then told how to keep them happy by including authority, speak their language and avoid stereotypes. Then we learned about the SAFEST method which goes as follows. Statistics, Analogies, Facts, Examples, Stories and Testimonials.

Post 22

On Monday’s class we went over what we have learned thus far in Writing for the media. We were reminded that a story needs a message to make a change in some way. A story also needs at least 2 characters one protagonist and one antagonist. You need to fact check. There also needs to be a conflict and resolution. We also learned some important points on dialog such as using the right lingo and echo emotion. The dialog needs to serve a purpose. Then try to avoid stereotypes and give complete information and reminded that the audience is lazy and wants power so keep the sentences up to eight words per sentence because the audience wants strong, powerful, active and engaging dialog. That’s what we learned on Monday.

Post 21

In Friday’s class we started our conversations over a different media outlet and that is the radio. We learned about radio scripts which basically tell how the message will be told. What you need for a radio script is a list of your characters and what affects you will use and then you need your dialog which is what the character will say or the noises being made such as the sound of a door opening and closing. We also were introduced to abstract and concrete words. Abstract words tells concepts and usually end in "ism". Concrete words show and illustrate, such as Sunday dinner or "if you’re going to call if late call." Duel coding is adding emotion with words. We also talked about expectations of rewards and how work and effort are required and the harder you work the greater the reward expectation. Thats the news on what we learned about on Friday.

Post 20

In class yesterday we spoke about the media sources that are available to us, but we focused in on the radio. We learned that the most popular way of telling stories is orally. To mention oral stories told over the radio you can’t forget the telling of "The War of The Worlds" by Orsen Wells. Orsen Wells had America scared of an invasion whether it be real life aliens or an attack from another country. That is a major feat to accomplish to do this he made the presentation seem like a real broadcast. To do this he used little tricks like having the weather being told and also having music constantly playing throughout the broadcast. He would interrupt the program also with constant news reports with specialists such as a professor from Princeton observatory and a militia commander and they all spoke as someone in their profession would using jargon and their lingo. Orsen Wells also gave in-depth details about the spacecraft and the emerging aliens saying things such as smooth skin, grey snakes and monstrous. He painted verbal pictures that seemed so real that people actually believed him. That shows the power of the spoken word and media.

post 19

On Monday in class we talked about our Three Little Pigs story. We talked about the reason why the characters interact with each other the way that they do. We went over the three stage act again and reviewed why they acted as they did.  We said that there had to be a reason why the Wolf stopped his addiction of eating pigs. He couldn’t just stop he had to have a solid good reason. We also talked about the Wolfs feelings and how they worked Cohen side with his actions such as the fact that he has an addiction and is being manipulated by the monkey when deep down he doesn’t want to eat pigs anymore. Speaking about the monkey we talked about his motives as well such as revenge against the pigs for taking away his power and how he wants to regain his power by being the Wolfs puppet master. Then we talked about the pigs themselves such as the fact that they are stupid victims and how they have rivalries amongst between each other and that’s why they would talk or not talk to the Wolf again.

Improving Dialog post 18

Last Friday in class we learned some more on dialog in a story. In class we learned how to improve dialog in a story. The first way to improve dialog is to "Read it aloud" it seems like a no brainer but skipping this advice will make a major difference in a bad way. Things often sound better after reading it aloud and fixing simple grammar mistakes. The second way to improve dialog is to avoid long passages because you may lose the attention of your audience. Giving distinctive dialog for each character is the third step and can really enhance your characters and bring them to life. The forth step is to speak their language or know what they are talking about. The fifth step is to add habitual phrases so go ahead have some fun and give some of your characters a catch phrase. The sixth step is to cut out dialog that doesn’t serve a purpose unnecessary dialog can really lose a reader fast. The seventh step is to listen to people, hear how others talk and your add authenticity to your character. The eighth step is to avoid stereotypes no one wants to read or hear what others have already said a million times. The ninth step is to avoid slang because not everyone will understand what your character is saying. The tenth and last step is to model your characters dialog from similar people or see what others are doing. Thats what we learned about on Friday.

Dialog in Movies Post 17

Yesterday in class we talked about Full Metal Jacket a movie that we watched a part of on Monday. The movie had some harsh language to say the least. The dialog was hardcore and the Sargent gave a sense of authority by using strong language and a loud tone of voice. Most of what we watched was the Sargent tearing down the new batch of soldiers, which the class discussed it was to rebuild them into efficient soldiers. The Sargent appeared to be quick on the draw and very thick skinned. At times the abuse got physical as when the Sargent hit a new soldier in the stomach for having a smile on his face and at another time he had a soldier choke "himself" by using the Sergeants hand and pressing against it. I can see why some of this abuse is necessary since personally I don’t want a bunch of pansies in the armed forces of the United States of America.

Post 16

On Mondays class we learned about Dialog which "moves the story along “and is the information of the story. We learned that there are many ways that dialog can hurt your story. Some of the mistakes in dialog are

1. Having too much dialog, such as in cartoons this may be overwhelming.

2. Then the use of monologging and having one person "yacking" or all the talking.

3. You don’t want the characters sounding to real or precise because people don’t always speak in complete sentences and correct manner.

other mistakes are 

· Using someone’s name too often.

· Telling me something I already know. 

· Making all the characters sound alike is another mistake since there are many reasons why people don’t sound alike such as accents, cultures, education and age just to name a few.

So to save yourselves some trouble you should fact check and know the lingo.

Post 15

Last Friday the class talked about creativity and how it comes to writers. The first step is to "hunt and gather", what we will be gathering will be information. Writers should gather information from as many different groups as possible, and try gathering information from new and different routes. Accord to Maslow’s Hierarchy once we gather one thing we climb up the ladder and gather whats next. What writers gather are ideas. The second step is to play with your ideas, get past that first level of creativity. Have fun with characters maybe living in another universe or timeframe. The third step is to let it stew, which means exactly like what it is. Once your get tired of writing or have writers block put down the pen or step away from your computer and just let your mind be free and create wonderful ideas. After that the forth step when you know what your going to write about is the "Eureka" moment and you have your start to the story. The final step is to "just do it" avoid all negative thoughts and just write the thing out. Thats what we learned last Friday.

post 14

Yesterday in class we had a quick review of what we have learned thus far. We went over the 3 act structure, Maslow’s hierarchy, what is needed in a story such as a minimum of 2 characters, an antagonist a protagonist, conflict and resolution and that we write for an audience amongst other things. But most importantly we learned the 10 story types.

Which are

· Romance (which I learned isn’t between lovers but any personal intimate relationship)

· Success/ Failure ( This makes the characters more believable)

· The Cinderella story (Such as Rocky and Real Steel)

· Conversion ( Which at the beginning of a story starts from a I don’t need to, to I must)

· Sacrifice ( A great example is the story of Christianity)

· Family ( A story directed at families and family gatherings such as stories of holidays and weddings)

· Triangle ( This is romance with a twist such as a third character

· Return ( Such as The Lion King when Simba leaves and returns to claim his thrown)

· Crime & Punishment ( Like the movie Boondock Saints)

· Heroic

post 13

Friday in class we went over Maslows order of hierarchy again. Then we reviewed the 3 act structure but then we started to use our knowledge of the 3 act structure and came up with the beginnings to a story. The story is an old one; it’s actually a well-known fairy tale. The three little pigs is what we discussed in class on Friday. You all know the story of the three little pigs but we decided to add a twist to the story and continue it where the original story left off. Of course the story has got to have characters, so we have the three little pigs then the big bad wolf but we decided to add a few more characters into the mix. The new characters are mom pig, dad pig and of course a girl pig but that didn’t seem to be enough to we added a evil monkey that works with the wolf. So far the continuation goes as follows, the wolf is actually the protagonist who believe it or not hates the fact that he hates eating pigs and is trying to overcome his addiction as best as he can. While the antagonist is the evil monkey who is trying to entice and trick the wolf into eating the pigs because earlier he used to be the dictator over the animals until the pigs over through him. So the monkey wants them dead so that he may be dictator once again. That’s where we left the story at and where told to finish our own version of the story. That's what we did in class Friday.

post 12

Yesterday we went over the 3 act structure again, but with some new information. Inside of the structure we have the motivation or why and the goals and what power can be acquired for the antagonist or protagonist. The motivation is flowing frequently throughout the entire story. Professor Jenkins also said that structure provides pressure, I’m not really sure what that means but I think it means that the 3 act structure keeps the story moving by going through phases and conflicts. Once one conflict is settled there is a new one that takes its place from moving from the "BAD" in act break one to the "WORSE" in act break two to the "EXTERNAL" in act break 3. The pressure is always on the protagonist to keep moving and accomplish his goal. We also talked about "starting with the snake" which means to start with the action and get with the story or jump into the story, and not to do "once upon a time" type stories no background is needed right away because to be frank that loses the audience’s attention and once you've lost their attention its hard to gain it back. I think that this is why we started our short story with "it just sat there staring" it adds an element of action to begin a story like that. That’s what we learned yesterday, a new thing learned every day.

Blog post 11

On Monday we learned about the 3 act structure. It looks like a baseball field and is the basic structure of a story. The points that look like the bases of a baseball field are called acts .First at what would be home plate there is the hook, the hook is the part of the story where the action begins and gets the audiences attention. Now in the middle of what looks like the homeplate  and the first act you have the introduction this is where information about the protagonist and antagonist is given along with the back story. Then we have our first break which introduces the first conflict of the story. That small conflict is resolved in between the first act break and second act break. But the in the second act break there is an even bigger conflict that must be over come. When this occures the next event that happens is the the overcoming of the internal fight of the protagonist here the character defeats his or her fear. Then the third act break occures and the external fight happens with the antagonist.After the third break the resolution is solved and the protagonist is forever changed. Thats what we learned on Monday this week.

Blog post 10

On Friday we learned the essential facts about characters, basically meaning the qualities the character should hold. First thing is that they must be real or believable you don’t want the audience to loss interest in your writing because the characters seem fake. Being real and believable doesn’t mean that they can’t be unique; you don’t want them to be cliché or generic. Make the characters to have special qualities that make them different to others. Next you must make the characters someone the audience can connect with, you don’t want to write about a billionaire playboy when your audience is made of middleclass teenage girls, the characters must also have emotions that the reader can relate to. Finally the character must want some sort of power he or she must have a goal or motivation for their actions. Those are the essential facts about characters.

Now to go along with making the character believable you must do fact checks. If your character is a race car driver and you don’t know anything about racing then that’s going to hurt your characters story line. If you need to know and acquire more knowledge don’t be afraid to ask someone who does know about the subject. Learn the jargon and procedures about your characters background. If you didn’t learn much from the expert then do some research online or through books.

Thats what we learned about essentail facts and characters.

Blog post 9

The last class period that we had in Comm-St 351 was over characterization and characters. Characterization is different from characters in general. Characterization is what is seen and understood about a character from the surface, many might be clichés or first level characters, there also may be many writers working on characterization. Characters on the other hand are more complex and deep. Characters show there true self’s under pressure; an example of this that was used in class is Rocky from the movie Rocky. We see Rocky’s character come out under pressure during his last round. In class today we also did some characterizations of two people one a woman in a station wagon with cleaning supplies and the other a well to do man driving a porche. For the woman we found out that she was a Hispanic illegal immigrant and right away the class came up with some pretty good comments about her being a hard working mother. While the man had received many negative statements about him being narcissistic and full of him. I think these characterizations where made because nobody wanted to be politically incorrect. It’s funny because at first when I heard that she was wearing a bandana and had cleaning supplies I thought that she was a meth producer and I’m Hispanic, but as more information about her started to unravel I figured she was a worker who meant no harm. That was Wednesday’s class.

post 8

In class today we learned about the most important aspect to a story and that is the characters. We learned how they can be either active or passive. To be active means to control the situation and to react to what is happening in the story. To be passive is to allow what is happening to continue and not doing a thing about it . The passive character will let others walk all over them and not react. You never want the protagonist to be passive he must always be on the move and handling what has to be done. Think about Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, he didn’t just let the Death star destroy planets, no he went on to study how to be a Jedi and destroyed the Death star. The next thing we learned about is to create motivation for the characters you got to ask why he or she is acting and why is it important to them. To find out why the character is acting the way they are you can use Maslow's hierarchy of needs which from importance start as follows, the need to exist, security, love. Esteem and self. A person isn’t usually willing to help others until they have meet all their personal needs first. The hierarchy will help explain why they are doing what it is that they are doing. This is what we learned in class today.

cliché characters

It's never really a good idea to be cliché, people stereotype cliché characters and mostly in a negative manner. You must try to remain and be yourself, that doesn’t mean that you must not go out and do what other people are doing because we all do that to some extent, however you must try and put your own personal twist to it. We are all different and that’s what makes us unique and beautiful. Having things in common with other people is fine just don’t overdo it and copy or imitate someone to be cool or liked, be your own person. Being cliché is not just about looks either but a combination of looks and attitude or personality. Be yourself because no one is better at being you but yourself. These are something’s to think about when writing and creating characters. Don’t create a character that has already been used and created millions of times. Don’t use the example of the dumb henchman for an evil scientist or the evil twin or clone, add some spice to the creative process think beyond the 1st level. Talk to and watch as many different people as you can to get ideas for characters, everyone will come up with something different and go deeper into the personality of the character maybe expand more on their past. Brainstorming is another idea on how to avoid cliché characters just sit down and write about as many characters as you can, and they don’t have to obvious it’s all a product of your imagination so don’t hold back.

Post 6

It’s a chaotic day in Missouri Department of Corrections there is a riot going on.
Derrick Smith is a newly transferred inmate having killed a person during an altercation over drugs. He came from Kansas City county jail. He came from a broken home with no mom and an alcoholic father growing up in a dangerous neighborhood he never really stood a chance in making something of him. Derrick and another prisoner have a Guard surrounded. Today Prison Guard Peter Vedder is on watch at Missouri Department of Corrections and is in full riot gear due to an ongoing prison riot. Peter is cornered  by two prisoners and needs to know if he can use lethal force. Peter is a ex-police man who got fired for unlawful conduct. He has a Wife and kid who he loves dearly, every day he prays that he will come home from work alive, right now he isn’t sure if that will happen. On the other line to Peters call for help is Warden Micheal. Warden Micheal is a church going religious man and believes in redemption for anybody. He also believes in using non-violence in almost any giving situation. Today Warden Micheal has to make a rash decision dealing with life or death; he has to approve of lethal force in a riot. Micheal finally approves of lethal force. Peter shots both Derrick Smith and his accomplice. Luckily for everyone, no-one dies today.

Story Time

In class the other day we shared stories to share a little bit of ourselves. There were many stories shared, most of them were humorous that the entire class could mostly relate to and could have happened to any of us. For example we all have family members who share stories about ourselves that we wish they wouldn’t one example of that was the story of a baby pooping on their aunt’s floor, this is pretty embarrassing but to make things worse the Aunt to this day reminds the student about it every time they talk. I guess the message there is to not take life to seriously, since the student did tell the class about it. Another story would be about the student who was hanging with friends walking when they got jumped by another group of thugs. The student’s reaction was to flee the scene and leave his friends to fend for themselves although he did return once the fight was over. Although I probably would stay and fought I can see why someone would run away and telling it as a story it sounded pretty funny. We shared these stories because they were comical, not so bad/ incriminating and most of all authentic. I feel a little bit closer to the class group now.

Second Week of Class

Hi everyone it’s that time again for a new post. Yesterday was the beginning of the second week of class and there were some mistakes made in my previous posts. First off hooray for America there was a mistake made, the average reading level in America isn't the reading level of a fifth grader but it’s the reading level of a seventh grader. I guess that means Americans can put down the Goosebumps books and pick up books like "The Pearl", although 20 % of the population of adults would be left behind because they can only read at a fifth grade level. Reading "The Pearl" would be like reading a bed time story for 15% of the adult population in the United States of America because that 15% are fully literate meaning they read at a college level. Let’s get deeper into understanding what makes a good story. As learned in class the first thing to know is to know your audience as stated in an earlier post most people are lazy and don’t want to use energy to read. So the author has to be concise, sell the story and have one idea per story. Now we have to figure out why people read stories in the first place well here are some reasons we came about in class, first they are easy to remember and easy to understand. Some more reasons are they engage attention, are easy to believe and easy to share. That’s what we learned about class yesterday.

Blog 3 The tales of Matt and Rocky

On an average day one might find baby Matt at the park in a stroller posted next to Rocky his best friend and a Doberman. You might think how can a baby have a best friend but be wary this is no ordinary baby Matt can communicate with all animals. This gift is unknown by other people because he is a baby and couldn’t talk.

Life hasn’t been all peaches and cream with Rocky and Matt. First it was Matts family and their pet cat Vicky and goldfish Sunny. Matt and Vicky would play all day and talk. Then the family decided to get a dog and so came Rocky. Rocky was a puppy and enjoyed playing all day, so Matt found a new best friend. Vicky started feeling neglected by Matt and so Vicky became jealous of Rocky. One day Vicky came up with the plan to kill Rocky.

Rocky had a special spot under the dinner table where he would sleep at, and Vicky knew this. The evening before Vicky told her plan to Sunny the goldfish. Matt overheard this but couldn’t reach Rocky because he was outside. That night the family had steak for dinner so Vicky stole a steak knife to use to kill Rocky.Then Rocky came strolling along and as usual went to sleep a little under the table. Vicky was about to drop the knife on Rocky when Matt came and pushed Rocky away. Ashamed at herself Victoria left and never came back.

 It was the second day of my Writing for the Media class yesterday, and I learned some interesting stuff about writing for the masses or anyone in general. The first lesson was that when writing you should "always think of the audience first! This is a crucial lesson because the information that I learned in class today was sad to say the least. Im gonna give the scary statistics that I learned in class. First 58% of high school graduates never read another book after graduating. Then one would think that those who graduated from a school of higher learning would certainly invest some time in some casual reading but you would be wrong, 48% of college graduates never read another book after graduating from college. The last statistic that im going to throw your way is that the average reading level in America is reading at the 5th grade level. With all of these statistics it makes your wonder if there is even a point to writing at all, but dont lose hope just yet because there are ways to write and have people read what you write. That is we need to simplify writings for the audience and apply the knowledge of the reader. Mainly as the professor said we need to "keep it short and simple." So with that in mind im going to finish my blog for the day. 

First Day of Class

Well today was an interesting first day of class. The teacher Professor Jenkins explained to us how the class will be run, but not before making several Star Wars jokes and this only encouraged other students to make some of their own Star Wars jokes. The saddest part of this comedy act was that I actually knew what they were talking about, being that I was a huge Star Wars fan as a child. Then there was the student introduction of themselfs which consisted of the generic normal ,tell us your name ,what year student you are and what your major is. Then came the not so generic and a little bit luny tell us your favorite snack food. Im still not sure why that last question was asked but it did liven up the room a bit. When it was my turn I said I wanted to work in advertising and marketing he started talking about how advertising was bad and im pretty sure he also said it was evil , but I took no offense to it.  Anyways back to the main topic which is the class setup. I was scared at first when I entered the room because I didnt really know what to expect out of the writing intensive college course , but this was before the professor told us that the papers would not be longer then around 250 words. Still we will have many papers to write yet it should not be that difficult. With a funny professor who seems laid back and the work involved this class won't be as bad as I thought it would be.